Uprooted Palestinians are at the heart of the conflict in the M.E Palestinians uprooted by force of arms. Yet faced immense difficulties have survived, kept alive their history and culture, passed keys of family homes in occupied Palestine from one generation to the next.

Saturday, 12 December 2015

American troops have been sneaking into the country's western Anbar province for months. And now Turkey is carving up its own piece of the pie.

Last week, around 150 Turkish soldiers - backed by two-dozen tanks - deployed to Iraq's Bashiqa, near the country's second city of Mosul, which has been under the control of the Daesh terror group since last summer.

Officials in Ankara kept flip-flopping as concerns the reasons for the incursion; first, they denied the troops were even there. Then, they claimed that the Turkish military was conducing a training exercise, and finally stated that the move was intended to serve as protection for Turkish military advisors in the area.

At one point, the Turkish government claimed that the additional troops were in Iraq to help train local forces fighting against Daesh, and that they had Baghdad's blessing.They did not. In fact, the central government in Baghdad is fuming.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haidar al Abadi called on Turkey to "immediately" withdraw its forces, before ordering his Foreign Minister to file a compliant with theUN Security Council.

On Friday, Iraq's top cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, echoed the same calls, urging the government in Baghdad to show "no tolerance" toward any side that violates the country's sovereignty.

However, no one in Ankara appears to be too concerned - and for a good reason.The western ‘defenders' of international law and sovereignty do not even care to make it seem as though they are opposed to Ankara's actions.

US State Department spokesperson John Kirby said that he was unaware of Iraq's concerns."We want Turkey and Iraq to work this out. And they are." Kirby said.

Turkey's president Recep Tayep Erdogan also weighed in on the deployment,stating that, "withdrawing our soldiers is out of the question for the moment."

It sure sounds like they are working it out.

Maybe that is because, to ‘work this out', Baghdad must accept the de facto annexation of the northern part of Iraq.

According to unconfirmed reports, the number of Turkish troops in Bashiqa has swelled to 900 during the course of this week, suggesting that Ankara is setting up a permanent base there.

The camp occupied by the Turkish troops houses an Iraqi force made up mainly of extremist volunteers and former police officers who previously fled their posts, allowing Nineveh province and its capital Mosul to fall to Daesh without a fight in June 2014. The architect of this contingent is former Nineveh governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, a man countless Iraqi lawmakers have accused of conspiring with Washington to break up Iraq.

The force has always been widely regarded as a counterweight to the Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units and the most effective force against Daesh - that have grown in strength across Iraq with Iran's help.

A member of parliament from Iraq's ruling State of Law Coalition, Saad Al Mouttalibi, told me that Turkey's incursion into Iraq is possibly, "a stabilising force for a new Sunni state".

Jointly ruled by Nujaifi and the Barzani dynasty, which runs the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), this new entity would be a Turkish military ‘protectorate'.

With Daesh failing to fully dismantle the Sykes-Picot Agreement and redraw the map of the Middle East, it appears that Ankara has resorted to taking on a more direct role in order to realize its geopolitical aspirations.

And northern Iraq is an easy target - and certainly easier than similar adventures in northern Syria.

Erdogan - NATO's man in the Middle East - who took it upon himself to shoot down a Russian jet bombing terrorists in northern Syria, has recently had his ambitions curtailed.

A combination of Russian sanctions and the deployment of advanced Russian weaponry to Syria, including the S400 surface-to-air missile defence system, have clipped Erdogan's wings.What's more, the Russians have exposed and are now going after the oil smuggling business between Daesh and Erdogan's inner circle.

According to former Iraqi Government Spokesperson Ali Al Dabbagh, "Turkey is in a critical position, especially because of the oil smuggling, and they want to show that they still have cards to play".

So, Ankara has turned its attention to Iraq.

Turkey and its allies in Washington have made sure to punish the Iraqi premier, who accepted to host the intelligence sharing centre comprised of the newly dubbed ‘4+1' alliance - Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hizbullah and Russia - and welcomed the prospect of Russian strikes against Daesh in Iraq.

In the Name of God, the Beneficent, the MercifulTo the Youth in Western Countries,The bitter events brought about by blind terrorism in France have once again, moved me to speak to you young people. For me, it is unfortunate that such incidents would have to create the framework for a conversation; however the truth is that if painful matters do not create the grounds for finding solutions and mutual consultation, then the damage caused will be multiplied.

The pain of any person anywhere in the world causes sorrow for a human being. The scene of a child losing his life in the presence of his loved ones, a mother whose joy for her family turns into mourning, a husband who is rushing the lifeless body of his spouse to some place and a spectator who does not know that in few seconds he will be witnessing the last act in his life’s play - these are scenes that rouse the emotions and feelings of any human being.

Anyone who appreciates love and humanity has been impressed and touched by witnessing such scenes- whether it occurs in France or in Palestine or Iraq or Lebanon or Syria.

No doubt the one-and-a-half billion Muslims also have these feelings. They repudiate and abhor the perpetrators of such tragedies. The issue, however, is that if today’s pain is not used to build a better and safer future, then it will just turn into bitter and fruitless memories. I believe that it is only you the youth who, by learning the lessons of today’s hardship, have the power to discover new means for building the future and who can block the misguided path that has brought the west to take such stance (anti-Islam positions).

It is correct that today terrorism is our common worry. However, it is necessary for you to know that the insecurity and strain that you experienced during the recent events differ from the pain that the people of Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan have been experiencing for many years, in two significant ways. First, the Islamic world has been the victim of terror and brutality to a larger extent and for a longer period of time. Second, unfortunately, this violence has been supported by certain great powers through various methods and effective means.

Today, there are very few people who are uninformed about the role of the United States of America in creating, strengthening and arming al-Qaeda, the Taliban and their inauspicious successors. Besides this direct support, the states which are well-known for supporting this Takfiri terrorism, and despite having the most backward political systems, are standing arrayed as allies of the west. Meanwhile, the most pioneering and brightest movements which come from the active democrats in the region are mercilessly suppressed.

The duplicity adopted by the west in dealing with the awakening movement in the Islamic world is an illustrative example of the contradictory western policies.

The other face of this contradiction is represented by supporting the state terrorism carried out by the Zionist entity. The oppressed people of Palestine have experienced the worst kind of terrorism for the last sixty years. If the people of Europe have now taken refuge in their homes for a few days and have refrained from being present in crowded places, a Palestinian family has not been secure for decades even in its own home because of the Zionist regime’s death and destruction machinery. What kind of atrocious violence today is comparable to that of the settlement constructions of the Zionist regime?

This regime everyday demolishes the homes of Palestinians and destroys their orchards and farms, without being seriously slammed by its influential allies or even by the so-called independent international organizations. This is done without even giving them time to gather their belongings or agricultural products and usually it is done in front of the terrified and tear-filled eyes of women and children who witness the brutal beatings of their family members who in some cases are being dragged away to gruesome torture chambers. In today’s world, do you know about such violence on this scale and for such an extended period of time?

Shooting down a woman in the middle of the street for the crime of protesting against a soldier who is armed to the teeth- if this is not terrorism, what is it? Is it right not to consider this barbarism extremism just because it is being carried out by the armed forces of an occupying government? Or maybe only because these scenes have been repeatedly seen on television screens for sixty years, they should no longer stir our consciences.

The military invasions of the Islamic world in recent years- with countless victims- are another example of the contradictory logic of the west. The assaulted countries, in addition to the human damage caused, have lost their economic and industrial infrastructure, their movement towards growth and development has been stopped or delayed and in some cases, has been thrown back decades. Despite all this, they are rudely being asked not to see themselves as oppressed. How can a country be turned into ruins, have its cities and towns covered in dust and then be told that it should please not view itself as oppressed? Instead of enticements to not understand and to not mention disasters, would not an honest apology be better? The pain that the Islamic world has suffered in these years from the hypocrisy and duplicity of the invaders is not less than the pain from the material damage.

Dear youth! I have the hope that you- now or in the future- can change this mentality corrupted by falsification and deception, a mentality which is expert in hiding long-term goals and adorning malevolent objectives. In my opinion, the first step in creating security and peace is reforming this violence-breeding mentality. As long as double-standards dominate western policies, terrorism- in the view of its powerful supporters- is divided into “good” and “bad” types, and as long as governmental interests are given precedence over human values and ethics, the roots of violence should not be searched for in other places.

Unfortunately, these roots have taken hold in the depths of western cultural policies over the course of many years and they have caused a soft and silent invasion. Many countries of the world take pride in their local and national cultures. These cultures have for centuries nurtured human societies, through development and regeneration. The Islamic world is not an exception.

However in the current era, the western world is insisting, and with the use of advanced tools, on the cloning and replication of its culture on a global scale. I consider the imposition of western culture upon other peoples and the trivialization of independent cultures as a form of silent violence and extreme harmfulness.

Humiliating rich cultures and insulting its most honored aspects, is occurring while the alternative culture being offered cannot in no way replace the original culture. For example, the “uproar” and “moral disintegration” which unfortunately have become the main elements of western culture, have degraded its status and the extent of its acceptability even in its native region.

So now the question is: are we “sinners” for for blocking the flood of impropriety that is directed towards our youth in the shape of various forms of quasi-art? I do not deny the importance and value of cultural interaction.

Whenever these interactions are conducted in natural circumstances and with respect for the receiving culture, they result in growth, development and richness. On the contrary, inharmonious interactions have been unsuccessful and harmful.

We have to state with full regret that vile groups such as ISIL (so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Levant) are the result of such ill-fated pairings with imported cultures. If the matter was simply ideological, we would have had to witness such phenomena before the colonialist era, yet history shows the contrary. Credible historical records clearly show how the concurrence between colonialism and a rejected extremist thought, which was originated in the heart of a Bedouin tribe, planted the seed of extremism in the region. How then is it possible that such garbage as ISIL comes out of one of the most ethical and humane religious schools which as part of its inner core, includes the notion that taking the life of one human being is equivalent to killing whole of humanity?

One has to ask why people who are born in Europe and who have been intellectually and mentally raised in that environment are attracted to such groups? Can we really believe that people who visited war zones once or twice, suddenly become so extreme that they can riddle the bodies of their compatriots with bullets? We certainly cannot forget the influence of improper cultural education in a corrupt environment that produces violence. In this context, we should reach a comprehensive analysis that highlights the hidden and apparent problems in a society. Maybe the deep hatred planted in the hearts of the western people during the years of economic and industrial growth, inequality and possibly legal and structural prejudice have all created complexes and knots that emerge from time to time.

Anyway, you are the ones who have to get into your society and uncover the knots in order to confront them. Fissures have to be sealed, not deepened. The major mistake while countering terrorism is the hasty reaction since it only widens the chasms. Any rushed and emotional reaction would isolate, intimidate and create more anxiety for the Muslim communities living in Europe and America- which are comprised of millions of active and responsible individuals. Such behavior would lead to deprive these people of their basic rights, something which has already happened and which would drive them away from society. These reactions won’t solve the problem, and actually they will increase the chasms and resentments.

Superficial and emotional measures, especially if they take legal forms, will do nothing but increase the current polarizations and open the way for other crises in the future. According to reports received, some countries in Europe have issued guidelines encouraging citizens to spy on Muslims. This behavior is unjust and we all know that the oppression has reversible repercussions whether we like this or not. Besides, the Muslims do not deserve such ill-treatment. For centuries, the western world has known Muslims very well.

The day westerners were guests in the Islamic lands and were attracted to the riches… When they were hosts and benefitted from the efforts and thoughts of Muslims, they generally experienced nothing but kindness and forbearance.

Therefore, I want you the youth to lay the foundations for a correct and honorable interaction with the Islamic world based on correct understanding, deep insight and lessons learned from horrible experiences.

In this case, you will see, and in the near future, that such foundations will promote confidence and trust (between Muslims and the west) as well as security and peace, something which will give hope in a bright future on the earth.

(FNA)- The Hadi loyalists and their allies from the Saudi-led Coalition suffered an embarrassing defeat at the hands of the Yemeni Army’s Republican Guard and their popular committees near the Yemeni city of Ta’iz on Wednesday.

According to a battlefield journalist that is embedded with the Yemeni Army’s Republican Guard, the latter and the Houthis carried out a powerful attack on the defensive positions of the Hadi loyalists at Mount Hayd Al-Baqr, resulting in the popular resistance forces taking full control of this site that overlooks the villages of Dabeen and Juraybah, which are located between Ta’iz and Al-Lahj in southern Yemen.

In addition to their success at Mount Hayd Al-Baqr, the Yemeni Army’s Republican Guard and the Houthis imposed full control over the Al-‘Arous Camp’s main entrance and the nearby village of Al-Shaqab after killing several enemy combatants from the Saudi-led Coalition forces.

As a result of their success in southern Yemen, the Yemeni Army’s Republican Guard and the Houthis have cutoff the last loyalist supply line to Ta’iz; this leaves the latter with only two choices: fight their way out or surrender to the popular resistance forces.

Israeli occupation forces havekilled three more Palestinians amid simmering tensions in the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

In one of the incidents on Friday, a Palestinian protester lost his life during clashes with Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank city of al-Khalil (Hebron).

The Palestinian Health Ministry identified the victim as 22-year-old Oday Ersheid, whose brother had also been killed at the hands of Israelis during similar clashes in October.

Meanwhile, the Israeli occupation army shot and killed another Palestinian, identified as Issa Hroub, 55, near al-Khalil, claiming he had attempted to ram his car into Zionist forces at a checkpoint there.

On the same day, another Palestinian was shot and injured by Israeli soldiers after he allegedly opened fire at the troops at the Gilboa crossing near Jenin.

In the besieged Gaza Strip, violent clashes broke out between Palestinian demonstrators and Israeli soldiers, who opened fire and killed a 41-year-old man.

Local EditorIraq's Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Ali al-Sistani on Friday expressed his categorical rejection for the Turkish military incursion into northern the country, calling on the government to protect the Iraqi sovereignty from all kinds of violations.The statements of the Supreme religious authority in Iraq were delivered by its representative Sayyed Ahmad Safi who asserted that since there laws which organize the international relations, none of the countries can dispatch its troops to Iraq under the pretext of helping the Iraqi forces in their war against terrorism."All the neighboring countries must respect Iraq's sovereignty and refrain from sending their troops to it," he added.The Iraqi government is responsible for protecting the country's integrity, sovereignty and independence fro those who violate its borders whatever their pretexts are, Sayyed Safi added.A crisis has sparked between Iraq and Turkey last Friday when reports said a Turkish training battalion equipped with armored vehicles was deployed near the city of Mosul under the pretext of training Iraqi paramilitary groups in fighting the ISIL terrorist group.

Source: Agencies

11-12-2015 - 20:00 Last updated 11-12-2015 - 20:00

Abadi Instructs FM to File Complaint at UN over Turkish Troops DeploymentLocal EditorIraqi Prime Minister Haidar al-Abadi on Friday instructed the Foreign Ministry to lodge an official complaint to the UN Security Council over the deployment of Turkish troops in northern Iraq.A statement by Abadi's office said the incursion by Turkish troops "is blatant violation of the provisions and principles of the UN Charter and a violation to the sovereignty of the Iraqi state, which happened without the knowledge and consent of the Iraqi authorities."Iraq demands the UN Security Council "to shoulder its responsibilities and orders Turkey to withdraw its troops immediately, and to ensure unconditionally withdrawal to the internationally recognized border between the two countries," the statement said.On Thursday, an Iraqi foreign ministry spokesman said that Iraq has contacted the five permanent member states of the UN Security Council for condemning Turkey's deployment of troops on Iraqi soil.He also said that Iraq demanded an Arab League extraordinary session to "discuss the consequences of the Turkish breach (to Iraqi sovereignty) and adopt an Arab stance against it."Iraq's latest move came a day after the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that withdrawing Turkish troops from Iraq is out of the question and that the Turkish soldiers are in Iraq as part of a training mission."Turkish troops in Mosul are not there as combatants; they are trainers. Their numbers may vary depending on the size of Kurdish Peshmerga troops. It is out of the question, for now, to pull them out," he said.The crisis between the two countries sparked last Friday when reports said a Turkish training battalion equipped with armored vehicles was deployed near the city of Mosul to train Iraqi paramilitary groups in fighting the ISIL terrorist group.Mosul, the capital of Nineveh province, has been under ISIL control since June 2014.Baghdad has insisted that the Turkish troops had no authorization from the Iraqi government and thus demanded their withdrawal, while Ankara called the troops only a routine rotation of the trainers.

On Wednesday, sporadic clashes erupted between the army and terrorists on the outskirts of al-Sheikh Meskeen city and Atman town in Dara’a province.

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Daraa ~ The army killed members of an armed terrorist group who were trying to infiltrate from Jisr al-Ghariya into military points near Kherbat Ghazaleh to the north of Daraa countryside.An army unit also targeted terrorists between Sour and Hrak towns in Daraa eastern countryside, destroying a den and depot there.

The Islamic Resistance troops managed on Thursday to a group of ISIL terrorists who were trying to move from the barrens of Ras Baalbek to those of al-Qaa on Lebanon's northeastern border with Syria, killing or injuring a number of militants.

Hezbollah fighters also killed a group of Nusra Front (Qaeda branch in the Levant) terrorists after targeting them in Wadi al-Khayl in Arsal barrens.

Well-informed sources told Al-Manar that the Nusra commander who was killed on Wednesday by Hezbollah troops in Arsal barrens is called Fadel Zaidan, adding that 13 terrorists were killed in the same operation.

The Lebanese army also launched an artillery attack against the terrorist groups in Arsal and Ras Baalbek barrens.